Raging Heart: Adrianna Mateo is Ready to Make Her Mark in the Music World

Photo: Karsten Moran

In March of this year, Mateo took a big leap of faith and created a Kickstarter campaign with a goal of $10,000 to fund her debut album. By the beginning of July, 188 backers pushed her nearly $1,000 over her goal.

“I’m really proud of myself for doing this Kickstarter because it kind of goes against everything you’re supposed to do, right?” she said. “You’re not supposed to ask people for money. Then I set it at $10,000, and I’m like, this is f-cking insane!”

Given her musical resume up to this point, centered as much as it has been in the contemporary classical world and formal musical training, listeners might be surprised to find out that Mateo’s first solo effort is a more or less a pop record.

“It’s widespread stylistically, but my voice kind of ties it together,” she said. “There’s some stuff that’s more Jeff Buckley and there’s some stuff that’s more like Fallout Boy. And I’m so excited to play this piece by David Lang called “Killer” originally co-written with Todd Reynolds, who’s a fantastic violinist.

“That kind of aesthetic has always been close to my heart,” she continued. “I made a conscious decision to really get my chops, really learn how to play violin, put on two-hour recitals, play eight or nine concerts a week. Moving into pop music seems to a lot of people like very much a left turn, but this was the idea all along. Way back in high school, I kind of knew this is what I wanted to do, but I was going to need these components to put it all together.”

But now that the money has been raised, the pressure is on to actually produce. Mateo said the album is tentatively scheduled for release in January of 2016, but that she might also go the route of releasing it song by song.

“We have a lot of work to do, but that’s kind of my M.O.: procrastinate, work really hard and then freak out. In my head, that’s my deadline,” she said. “I think what I would like to do is release it song by song, and that way you can actually get in the studio and tweak things as you go.”

And what kind of advice would she give to someone else who is really serious about a career in music?

“The first thing would be stay focused. In your off time go to concerts, watch live music, see what people who are good at what they do actually do on stage and in the studio,” she advises. “The second thing would be to talk or listen to as many different musicians as you can, because while the experience is extremely broad, the underlying ethic is the same.

“The degree you need to tune into your instinct is the same, it’s just voicing it differently. Be prepared to confront a lot of resistance. That’s a good thing, because it forces you to say ‘this is what I want to do, I don’t think it’s selfish.’”

Adrianna Mateo will be performing a free single release show at Arlene’s Grocery, 95 Stanton Street on March 11 at 11:30 p.m. Check out her music at Soundcloud.